September 2021

 

Hello everyone, welcome to the blog, what a wonderfully colourful month September is ! Hope you enjoy this month's photos.

You can't blame the geese for waiting patiently for the windfalls, they are delicious !

Our first time for growing sweetcorn, lovely and messy to eat and it makes you take your time eating.

Wilma still makes time for plenty of rest and relaxation

and Wilma's photo made it into the local paper's "pet portraits" pages with their caption 

"wheelie cute", made my day.

Zara has her own fan club, too and Miss B fell in love with her;  good luck with all your plans, we wish you happy adventures !

~~~~~~~~~~~

(from Scottish Women's Institute Facebook page)

~~~~~~~~~~~

What do you think this is? Have a guess

~~~~~~~~~~~

This month we had a great few days away Orkney- island-hopping, there is something for everyone in Orkney

we love ferries

beaches and sand dunes

seals

wide open spaces

geese

harbours

and chimney pots in Kirkwall

The cottage we rented in St Margaret's Hope had a beautiful conservatory with an amazing grapevine

grapes growing in Orkney !!

Wilma is not used to stairs at home, so on holiday she wasn't sure whether it was best to be upstairs or downstairs, big decision

~~~~~~~~~

Fleeces

This month I have come by some lovely sheep fleeces, it was difficult to decide which one to start on

So I started work on a lovely grey Herdwick fleece, to make a lush rug; laid  it out on the grass

 (with the help of Wilma the quality controller)

 and took off the not so good edge bits for washing and carding.

Using an old door the fleece is laid out in the workshop, skin side uppermost

The edge bits of the fleece were washed in an old bath outside and then put through my drum-carder to produce these wonderfully soft "batts"

The soft batts are then teased apart and laid out over the upturned fleece in one direction

a second layer is laid out in the opposite direction

and a final third layer is put down in the same direction as the first

an old net curtain is then laid over the fleece and wetted down

Then come the felting stage, lots of circular motion rubbing with warm water and soap, about 2 hours to felt this size of rug.

After the felting of the "skin"/ underside of the rug comes the "fulling"/shrinking of the felted base; this is done by rolling it up and rolling backwards and forwards in all 4 directions for about an hour.

The rug will have shrunk a bit by now.

Then comes the washing of the rug in the bath, drying it, fluffing it up and then you will find out whether or not the project has succeeded !

Next month I'll show you the final result

~~~~~~~~~~

A bit of local roadside humour

love it !

~~~~~~~~~

Autumn colours of this month's seaweeds, glorious!

~~~~~~~~~~

Quote of the month

"Be as simple as you can be; you will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become".

Paramahansa Yogananda

~~~~~~~~~

Loads of books of the month !!

Our friends seem to know exactly what books we will enjoy and we love it when they arrive in the post to us for us to enjoy too.

~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you Karen and Gary, just what we like

💙💙

~~~~~~~~

and three more we loved ....

~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~

Thank you Hayley, we're on the same wavelength !

💜💜

~~~~~~~~~

Answer to "What is it?"

Seaweed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pause for thought

(taken from Tao & Zen Facebook page)

~~~~~~~~~~

So, at the end of another month, we wish you a beautiful autumn full of colour, abundance and joy.

              (from Scottish Women's Institute Facebook page)

💚💚💚 Malcolm and June 💛💛💛

~~~~~

August 2021

Welcome to our August blog, 

BLOG number 101 !!!!

I missed celebrating blog 100 but never mind, thank you to those of you who have followed us all the way through, well done !

I think that Wilma has appeared in every posting and always puts her best paw forward when I'm taking photographs.

This month Wilma has decided that my boot-sale bargain is now her domain, enter if you dare ! 

Maybe she will help me get it back into the small, round bag that it magically popped out of !

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our iron lady that we call "Joycie", who stands at our gateway, was in desperate need of attention after ten years of being out in the seasalt air.

Now she's looking glowing again in the sunshine, ready to be photographed by the holiday makers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This unfolding thistle seed head was quite remarkable !

It went through various fascinating stages

and getting closer was magically beautiful

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We were recently given a paper-brick-making gadget and thought we'd give it a try, all we need now is some sun and warmth to dry them out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few fun afternoons were had making a rhino skeleton for an XR demonstration, always something different to do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just for fun

( from Scottish Women's Institute Facebook page)

~~~~~~~~~

Various Loch Ewe World War II memorials have been popping up this month around the area, commissioned by the Royal Arctic Convoy Museum

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Colours around the shoreline

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Poem of the month

I shall

Gather up

All the lost souls

That wander this earth

All the ones that are alone

All the ones that are broken

All the ones that never really fitted in

I shall gather them all up

And together we shall find our home.

by

Athey Thompson

follow her on Facebook:

talesoftheoldforestfaeries

for other delightful poems, books and artwork

Artwork by Seb McKinnon

~~~~~~~~~~

Book of the month

One of the most delightful books you will ever come across !

Thank you DJK for lending us this beautiful book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

(from Scottish Women's Institute Facebook page)

AND IT WILL !

Wishing you sunshine and happy days

  Malcolm and June    

                      and the gang                       

💛  💛  💛  💛  💛  💛  💛